In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" (1894), Mrs. Mallard received two shocking news within an hour. The first news revived her, while the second news killed her. This famous short story expresses Chopin's dissatisfaction regarding women's roles in marriages and their desire to break free from the patriarchal restriction and oppression. Love, for Mrs. Mallard, is in fact a violence in disguise because it is carried out by "imposing a private will upon a fellow-creature." Nobody understood her; they thought she was all right; they thought her sorrows were ordinary ones. What is even worse is that everybody misunderstood the cause of her death. They believed that she died from the joy of seeing her husband; only we readers know that she died from the grief of losing what she thought she might have had.

If Mrs. Mallard's husband were dead and she had opportunities to realize her dreams, what would her dreams be? Write a creative essay imagining the future of Mrs. Mallard as a widow.

This link can lead you to the audio clip that briefly describes the life and works of Borges. Click "real media" on the right side, listen careful, and write down anything that impresses or inspires you. For example, how fantastic are Borges's concepts of time, reality, and identity? How dos he influence the world and its readers outside Latin America? What are his insights into aspect of human psychology?

11/06/2010

Choose one from the following questions to write an essay (200-250 words). Cite texts to support your argument.

1) In “The Lady with the Dog,” the characters’ responses to their environment are integral to the action of the story and its effect on the reader. Describe the significance of various “settings” used by Chekhov to symbolize the protagonists’ inner psychology.

2) In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” why does the spider girl attract more people than the angel?

3) In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” what’s the secret the woman discovers behind the patterns of the wallpaper? Why does Charlotte Perkins Gilman make her narrator go crazy at the end of the story?

Choose two questions to answer. Allow no less than 2 pages (single-spaced) for each answer. Cite the texts to support your argument.

1. According to Mary Russo, making a spectacle out of oneself appears to be "a specifically feminine danger" (318). How does Cindy Sherman negotiate this "feminine danger" in her bold affirmations of feminine performance, bodily exposure, and gender masquerade? What does the idea of the "grotesque" and its subversive implications have to do with her various boundary transgressions?

2. Compare and contrast the representation of the grotesque in Kafka and Sherwood Anderson.